>1) Anyone see any issues with asking a potential client for a retainer? If so, how much?
>
>2) Any problem with putting in a kill switch? When they pay, you give them an access key. If they
>don't enter the access key within days, software stops working.
1 No problem, I've done it. You can also phrase it as a "prepay discount". Did that once with a client - 10 hours prepaid for $1000 against an hourly rate by the hour of $125 - $150 ( depending on how many hours were accrued in a billing period )
You might also consider billing immediately on the first 8 hours with the understanding the invoice is due on receipt, so they are not really prepaying but the most they can burn you for is 8 hours and you know immediately if their word is good.
2 With "off the shelf" stuff - basically "shareware" that goes numb after 30 days - this is pretty common. If you are talking about custom applications, just make sure it is very much in writing, you have a hell of a paper trail, and you don't do anything to mess up their data after 30 days.
I'd say with custom work it would show a great deal of lack of faith in the client which means you either need a better relationship with the client or no relationship at all.
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
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Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
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